The year 2014 may already be called historical with regard to regional separatist movements in Europe. On 18 September the Scottish people voted on a possible separation from the United Kingdom, though the outcome was negative. Today, the Catalans will express their view on the strive for Catalonian independence. Furthermore, the popularity of the nationalist movement in Flanders is still not decreasing. In June 2014, this resulted in a large election victory for the N-VA.

On 29 October 2014, we had the honour to welcome renowned expert Prof. Stephen Tierney (University of Edinburgh) in Ghent (view pictures). In this first installment of BelConLawBlog’s video interview series, we invited Prof. Tom Ruys (Ghent University) to discuss the vision of Prof. Tierney regarding constitutional referenda, with a focus on the recent Scottish and Catalonian referenda.

In the interview, both professors talk about the lessons to be drawn from the Scottish referendum process for secessionist agenda’s in Europe and around the world. Furthermore, they explore whether peoples or minorities have an inalienable right to hold a referendum and they analyze the relationship between regional independence and EU-membership.

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